Health

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca tells Raheem Sterling: ‘My fisherman father has a hard life, not you’ – after £300k-a-week outcast posted about training alone at night

By Editor,Kieran Gill,Luke Power

Copyright dailymail

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca tells Raheem Sterling: 'My fisherman father has a hard life, not you' - after £300k-a-week outcast posted about training alone at night

Enzo Maresca says Chelsea’s outcasts Raheem Sterling and Axel Disasi have easy lives compared to that of his own 75-year-old father who has spent the last five decades working as a fisherman.

The Chelsea manager was quizzed at his Friday press conference on how Sterling and Disasi were continuing to train separately from the first team with no chance of reconciliation.

It comes as the Professional Footballers’ Association tries to ensure that the pair have a proper platform to train as they await the opening of the January transfer window.

Maresca responded: ‘My father is 75 years old and for 50 years he has been a fisherman, working from two o’clock in the morning until 10 o’clock in the morning.

‘This is a hard life. Not for players.’

Sterling, who is still only 30, has two years remaining on his contract and is the Blues’ highest-paid player on more than £300,000 a week.

Sterling broke his silence when posting a picture of himself on Instagram as he prepared to train under the lights of Cobham at 8.21pm last week.

Disasi, 27, is believed to be on around a third of Sterling’s salary and contracted until 2029.

Maresca continued: ‘I’ve been in Raheem’s situation and Axel’s situation as a player and for sure, I know that it’s not the best feeling for a player because if you are a player, that means that you want to train and play games. The situation is the situation.

‘I know that the club is giving them the opportunity to work in the right way. I know it’s something that you like and you want to talk about, but it’s not just Chelsea, it’s any club in the world.

‘I can promise you, Italy, Spain, England, France, USA, Brazil, any club in the world, when for any reason the player and the club doesn’t find a solution and you give the player all the tools to do training sessions and to do everything, but if you are not involved in the squad you are not involved in the squad.

‘It’s not about Chelsea, it’s about any club in the world.’

Sterling has not played a single game under Enzo Maresca. His last game for the Blues was in May 2024 under old manager Mauricio Pochettino.

He was, of course, on loan at Arsenal last season and failed to live up to the shining standards he set at Manchester City.

But his alienation at Stamford Bridge has been deemed disrespectful by some prominent voices in football given that Sterling is a four-time Premier League winner, former FWA Footballer of the Year, and a veteran with 569 career appearances and 194 goals under his belt.

Gabby Agbonlahor told talkSPORT: ‘For Raheem Sterling, yes, last season wasn’t at his best. Seventeen Premier League games for Arsenal, only four starts, no goals, two assists. But he’s only 30, Raheem Sterling now.

‘Eighty-two England caps, 20 goals, four Premier League titles, five League Cups, one FA Cup. And he’s training on his own, being treated so badly by the manager.

‘What about Raheem Sterling’s mental health? What about [Axel] Disasi’s mental health?